Well the team is at this moment snuggled in their sleeping bags at Camp 2, but I doubt they are sleeping much. In less than 1 hr, Lakpa, Niels, Scott and Chris will be making a 12am (25th April) start to their summit ambitions on Ama Dablam. Lakpa will lead ahead with Sherpas from other teams to fix the lines between Camp 3 and the summit. He was busy on the mountain yesterday setting the lines up between Camp 2 and 3 –this is the most dangerous section of the climb.
The team should make it to Camp 3 by early morning, where they will take a good rest. Then they will push through straight to the summit. Due to more snow than usual on the mountain, the team decided not to sleep at Camp 3 and to have a longer summit day instead.
With only 3 expeditions on the mountain this season, they are working as one large group. The Russian and British groups are moving with Himalayan Ascent on this summit bid, sharing lines and Sherpa support. In total about 12 climbers will be heading up tomorrow. The weather forecast is good (the best so far this week), and the team is healthy and well. We should have an update sometime tomorrow about the day.
In other news, Anna Eriksson (our Swedish beauty) is relaxing in Everest base camp. She is enjoying the time by catching up with her Sherpa guides from Autumn 2012. Anna and Ankaji Sherpa (currently with the North Face expedition on the West Ridge of Everest) hiked up to Pumori base camp today. After her success on Lobuche, Anna hung with the Ama dablam team for a few days. She managed to get up to Camp 1 before dropping back to her own 2nd climb on Island Peak. Dendi Sherpa guided Anna up to the stunning views from high camp (~5800m) before they turned back –just wasn’t Anna’s summit day, but she had a great time. She has a few more days at Everest base camp before making her return trek to Lukla. .. Sumit in KTM.